March 30, 2013 was just yet
another day, in the life of Indians like any other day, and so witnessed
political games like it happens on any other day. But on certain days, the
frustrating developments contributing to the democratic ironies of these
political games get so pathetic that they start sounding comical. March 30 was
like one of those days only when one was compelled to feel so. Similar things
are happening on every other day, but at some points of time, they test your
patience to the extremes that the ironies instigate satirical innuendos giving
one some smiles of hopelessness.
That is the ugly aspect of
it because it shows growing apathy among the masses on the irrelevance of the
present political class elected by them. This apathy blocks the drive to fight
the seriousness of the problem by wrapping it with mundane ignorance.
Sample
this:
Though,
if we go by the reports while writing this that say that Beni Prasad Verma has
settled for a truce, almost three weeks ago, after a brief lull, the Beni
Prasad Verma-Mulayam Singh Yadav verbal duel had got back to its full life
again. Beni, the Congress party member of
parliament (MP) from Uttar Pradesh and the Union Steel Minister, started firing
shots again at his old colleague, Samajwadi Party (SP) boss Mulayam Singh
Yadav. Incidentally, Beni left the SP boat before the 2007 UP assembly polls to
join the Congress party ship later in 2009 to harness the greener pastures.
But
Beni has been unable to create any ground for the Congress party in UP where
the party is nothing but a dead political entity in spite of the fact that the
Nehru-Gandhi family hails from the state and Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are elected
MPs from traditional Congress party bastions, Amethi and Rae Bareli. And if we
go by the media reports, even Priyanka Gandhi is preparing to take electoral
dip and Rae Bareli could well be her address too, after the next Lok Sabha
elections.
Ok, but
here it is Beni Vs Mulayam or Beni Vs SP. Many consider Beni, an influential
Kurmi leader in the past, as the political mentor of Mulayam Singh Yadav. With
dwindling Kurmi politics in the state, he was gradually sidelined in the SP.
After leaving the SP, he couldn’t leave any political impact through his
outfit, Samajwadi Kranti Dal. He had left SP at a bitter note and the verbal
crackers that we are witnessing to this day have their genesis in that.
So, on
March 30, Beni, in his usual bitter tongue, proclaimed the next Lok Sabha
elections would indeed be the funeral of the SP restricting the party to just
four of the 80 Lok Sabha seats from UP. He also alleged Mulayam to cheat
Muslims on Babri issue.
Though,
we didn’t see Mulayam taking charge on this, we had Akhilesh Yadav, Ram Gopal
Yadav and some others filling the gap.
Akhilesh,
the UP CM, said it would be the Congress party’s doom and the party would not
be able to win more than 4-5 seats. SP General Secretary Ram Gopal Yadav
reiterated Mulayam’s words saying it was Verma’s frustration due to the two
successive defeats of his son in the assembly elections.
Mulayam’s
remarks came a day before in an interview: “Beni Prasad Verma has no status. His son contested elections
and he lost even his deposit. He lost all 5 seats from the constituency where
he is an MP. He is just flattering Congress. He behaves as if he's the only
leader left in Congress now.”
Another
SP General Secretary Ram Asrey Kushwaha said Beni had lost his mental balance and demanded his removal from the
Union Cabinet. The recent episode had begun some days ago with Beni accusing Mulayam of having terror links. Mulayam’s party made it
an issue and disrupted the Parliament’s proceedings creating pandemonium. The
party was demanding apology and Beni’s removal from the
Union Cabinet.
Beni had to apologise to
Mulayam over his comments as the support withdrawal by the DMK on Sri Lankan
Tamils issue put the government’s survival on thin edge making it to placate
the SP to manage the numbers in the Lok Sabha. The apology, it seems, somewhat
softened Mulayam Singh Yadav because we didn’t hear anyone from the SP
reiterating the demand to remove Beni from the Union Cabinet until on March 30.
With
the latest tirade, the pitch was high again on March 30 renewing the demand of Beni’s removal.
And
interestingly, some media sources reported that the UPA government was
considering removing Beni from the Union
Cabinet. An NDTV report said: “Samajwadi Party
sources say the Congress has assured the party that controversial Union
minister Beni Prasad Verma - who has been relentless in his public
attacks on the SP and its chief Mulayam Yadav - will be dropped from the Union
cabinet.”
On
March 31, a day after the latest run of jibes came the heavy punch from Shivpal
Yadav, Mulayam’s brother and a minister in the UP government. He declared Beni a smuggler. He said: “You all know and
you have also read that Beni Prasad smokes a lot. These days he is smoking a lot...
he mixes something in the tobacco. He should undergo treatment for this. You
have read also that he is into smuggling of opium. He mixes charas in his
cigarettes. He is doing both these things. So his mind will be affected.”
So
decorated words by our policymakers, for our policymakers – comically
interesting! Isn't it?
Beni again hit back. An Economic Times report of
March 31 says: “I said what I did
keeping in mind Uttar Pradesh politics and Congress' position. I stand by what
I said on Saturday.”
On
April 3, midst reports of the Congress party ‘advising’ Beni
not to make personal attacks on Mulayam, he met another Mulayam’s baiter Amar
Singh. And on April 4, we heard of
reports on Beni agreeing for a truce. A
Business Standard reported said: “According to Congress party sources, Verma
has not been chided for his comments but “he has been advised to quieten down.”
After all, Verma’s remarks against the Yadav supremo keep the party relevant in
Uttar Pradesh, where we still have to fight the SP and face the polls.”
So,
through it is almost five days to the SP renewing its demand to sack Beni, nothing has happened except the ‘friendly’ verbal
volleys because nothing had to happen.
SP-CONGRESS FRIENDLY FIGHT ON SUPPORT
WITHDRAWAL
The
Congress party: We don’t need support.
The
Samajwadi Party: We won’t withdraw support.
The
Samajwadi Party: Mulayam calls Congress cheat.
The
Congress party: The party doesn’t support Beni’s statements.
Even if
the UPA government can sail without it, the Congress party needs Mulayam’s SP
to manage comfortable numbers in the Parliament. The Congress party forcing Beni to apologise to Mulayam over the ‘terror links remarks’ and ‘advising’
him to go silent on Mulayam’ validate this. Then there are other validating
indicators.
Finance
Minister P Chidambaram was in Lucknow on March 29. He shared stage with Akhilesh Yadav during an event
to launch 300 bank branches in the state. Reportedly, he lauded Akhilesh Yadav
and promised financial help to the state.
A
regime at the centre of an outright criticism for failing to deliver during one
year of Akhilesh’s tenure got a distinction on performance from the Harvard
educated Chidambaram. He went on to say: “Akhilesh is a young
Chief Minister. He has started his career well. He and his team willl do the
best to bring Uttar Pradesh up in every single way. I assure the Chief Minister
that the Government of India is committed to stand by Uttar Pradesh in its
development”.
Clearly,
Chidambaram’s act was just a placating one highlighting the fact the Congress
party needs Mulayam’s support to avoid the heightened pressure points because
other supporters once the SP withdraws (existing ones like the BSP or the
prospective ones like the JD(U) or the AITC) would be excruciatingly demanding.
It is
further validated by the fact that the Chidambaram act came a day after
Manmohan Singh remarked that the SP withdrawing the support had real chances to
happen.
But, it
is the other way round too, it seems. The SP too, needs the Indian National
Congress boat to sail through in UP.
With a
rapidly rising anti-incumbency, the state government needs funds to offer and
maintain the dole-outs it has promised to the electorate. And see, Mr.
Chidambaram’s assurance is already in. It adds to the silencing advice marched
to Beni. The party has already made a safe
distance disowning Beni’s remarks.
So who
says, Mulayam is going to withdraw the support soon even if he reiterates yet
again that it not easy to fight with the government because it can use the CBI
to settle scores by sending people behind bars.
The
public war of words is just a mask. Yes, the Beni Prasad Verma issue is a
personal one but that is being dealt with, it looks. Apart from it, the whole
war of words game is a friendly one.
The SP
would not like to deliver the message that it is with the Congress party on
issues like petroleum price hikes and rising overall inflation or on policy
issues like quota in promotion or the women’s reservation that directly affect
its brand of politics and hence chances in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Also,
the Congress party is an opposition party of the SP in UP with Rahul Gandhi
trying to resurrect the lost political base in the state and that can never
happen in alliance with the SP, at least in public eyes.
Therefore,
the solution is to mask the meanings and play for the verbal duels. So, Mulayam
Singh Yadav calls the Congress party cheat but says his party won’t withdraw
the support from the UPA as it would allow the communal forces to pitch in. A
worn out but ‘play safe’ statement and enactment, isn’t it?
So,
where does this all boil to?
Keep on
watching this friendly duel for more friendly jibes. Someday, the comical
theatre of the pathetic may well turn into the hilarious rhapsody.